A Theology of Contradictions

Today, an elderly acquaintance of mine attended the funeral of a relative who took his own life.  Few things are more tragic than suicide.  Obviously there is a mixture of anger, frustration, sadness, love, compassion, regret, bewilderment and shock that accompanies the loss of a loved one in this manner.  Death is hard enough to grapple with when it is expected or accidental - but when it is intentionally self-inflicted it becomes an unbearable monster.

Please forgive me for attempting to quote my friend, but I feel that I must.  She said something like this: “My only hope is that he lost his mind and did this to himself without premeditation, or that he was able to ask for forgiveness in the last moment before he died.  I know he was a Christian!”  Though she didn’t say it, she was clearly inferring that she feared that as a result of his suicide he would not get into heaven.  This (all too common) perspective troubles me deeply. 

May we examine suicide today from a Biblical perspective?

Before we go exploring in the sacred text, grant me the leeway to speculate about the origination of the idea that suicide is an “unpardonable” sin.  It seems logical that someone somewhere used such an argument to scare people away from suicide (i.e., with a threat of resulting eternal damnation).  While suicide may indeed be an evidence of an unregenerate soul, it is never the underlying cause of condemnation.

Bear with me…

Seeing that basically murder = kill, the most difficult passage that comes to my mind while wrestling with this issue is either First John 3:15b, “You know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him” or maybe Revelation 21:8, “The fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”  Better yet, look at Galatians 5:19-21 “The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”  If killers don’t have eternal life and they burn in the lake of fire, then we’ve got a rather bleak hope for our loved ones who have been driven by something to take their own life.  But is it really that simple?

I’ve no agenda (other than a search for revealed truth).  I’m not trying to excuse any sin or paint a picture of rosy theology whereby we all suppose that everybody (or most people, at least) make it in.  Neither is it my desire to declare with pride that those who endure life’s hardships are somehow more worthy of heaven that those who give up.  I want a verdict that is authoritative and issued from a divine perspective. 

Unquestionably, suicide is wrong.  It is wrong for many reasons.  First, we have no right to take a human life unless God commands it.  Man was made by God and reflects His image.  We are His possession.  An attack on His property is an attack on Him.  Surely… capital punishment, self defense, national defense & home protection are defensible exceptions to the “Thou shalt not kill” commandment (though these are not my subjects today).  However, exceptions should never destroy clear rules.  God reacted negatively to the first killing (by Cain), and he will react negatively to every killing in history – down to the very last one.  Every sin is judged. 

And now, here intrudes the answer before I’m ready for it.  Every sin is judged!  No sin is left unpunished.  There are a few different ways that sins are punished, but there are only two ways ultimately.  Every single sin, from “acceptable” little infractions like stealing an apple, file sharing or speeding… all the way to big dark ones like rape, suicide or homosexuality, every sin must find its final end (1) at the cross with Christ or (2) in eternal fiery damnation with Satan himself.  This clear distinction is also true for the sin of suicide, right?  Absolutely yes!  When a person becomes a child of God, his or her sin is pardoned because of the propitiation of Christ’s blood on Calvary.  No longer do we stand in jeopardy.  He said, “I will NEVER leave you, nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5b).   He said, “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.  My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand” (John 10:28-29).   He said, “All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.  For I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.  And this is the Father's will which hath sent Me, that of all which He hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.  And this is the will of Him that sent me, that every one which sees the Son, and believes on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise Him up at the last day” (John 6:37-40). 

Need more?

Ephesians 4:30, “Grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”

Psalm 12:7, “Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, Thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.”

Consider this extreme statement concerning God’s children in 2 Timothy 2:13, “If we believe not, yet He abides faithful: He cannot deny Himself.”  My post-conversion doubts can’t even cause me to be “lost” again!  My security is based upon His promise, not my perseverance.

How about this unexpected source of reassurance: “Not every one that says unto me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven.  Many will say to me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works?’  And then will I profess unto them, ‘I NEVER knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.’” (Matthew 7:21-23).  Notice that God will not say, “I once knew you, but now I don’t!”  No, the response of God to these unregenerate unbelievers will be, “I never knew you!”  This is eternal security at its best.  Once saved, always saved – no matter what!  There is no sin vile enough to get me expelled from the family of God.  God has never and will never divorce Himself from His redeemed remnant.  I’m born from above.  I’m saved, justified, sanctified, forgiven and adopted.  I’m an everlasting possession of the Great God of this universe.  It is not possible for me to be removed from Him, nor Him from me.  My access to salvation didn’t depend upon my excellent behavior and likewise the retention of this same salvation doesn’t depend upon excellent behavior.  If any sin could condemn me, then every sin would condemn me.  I’m in Christ Jesus and there is NO condemnation on my life.  He disciplines His children, but He never returns us to our former father (the Devil) to suffer his eternal fate.  (By the way – such freedom doesn’t permit me to live wickedly, it motivates me to live righteously). 

Now, where do people get the idea that we can make our own list of unpardonable sins?  No church; no cleric; no synod; no culture has the wisdom or authority to declare an individual either acceptable or unacceptable before the Awesome throne of God.  There is one Lawgiver – and it ain’t you or me, friend.  He has laid out the terms of eternal blessedness very plainly.  Here it is again: First John 5:12, “He that has the Son has life; and he that has not the Son of God has not life.”  That’s plain enough!  Here it is yet one more time from the mouth of the Savior,imself… “He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36). 

The fact is this.  Every person alive today has either made the decision to trust Christ or they haven’t made that decision.  Our eternal destiny rests solely on that one decision.  It is not a religion, a lifestyle, an opinion, a perspective, a habit, a culture, a bloodline, a list of rules or an accident.  It is a decision.  Jesus died for you.  Will you trust him or not?  If a person has made that decision in the affirmative, then there is no force tangible or metaphysical that can damn his (or her) soul.  There is no following decision that can undo the regeneration of that elect saint. 

Read this passage carefully:

Romans 8:33-39 “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect?  It is God that justifies.  Who is he that condemns?  It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  As it is written, ‘For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I’m not promoting suicide.  It’s a horrible, awful thing.  It hurts people.  It effectively demonstrates a lack of faith, patience and humility.  It set’s a wicked example for others who are impressionable.  It’s incredibly selfish.  It violates God’s law.  It is not a product of the Spirit’s leading.  It offends our loving God.  It indicates Satan’s influence.  It brings doubts to people’s minds concerning the sincerity of the guilty one’s testimony.  It leaves family and friends with permanently unanswered questions.  It is unfair at best and cruel at worst.  But!  But!  But!  I said, but, it does NOT keep a person from going to heaven.  Suicide only sends a person to hell if that is where they were going anyway due to never being born again.  Can I say it any more plainly?

Admittedly, there may be some questions remaining (then) for some people (concerning John 3:15b, Revelation 21:8 & Galatians 5:21 specifically).

I think the easiest passage to tie these into the equation might be First Corinthians 6:9-11, “Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.  And such were some of you: but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”  We are all unrighteous (yes, even murders) outside of the blood of Christ; “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies… (Matthew 15:19); “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders…” (Mark 7:21).

The final problem is not that we are killers (though that is indeed A problem), the final problem is seen when we refuse to repent of our killing.  With every infraction, each human consents to the murder of the Messiah.  Is nobody saved then?  We know that this is not the case (Jude 14).  Revelation 9:21 speaks of the lost in the Tribulation who are condemned because of their unwillingness to be changed.  These “neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”

Remember Galatians 5:19-21.  If “the works of the flesh are manifest [made obvious and revealed]” including not only killing but also “adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying… drunkenness, revellings, and such like,” then I’m afraid whatever “unforgivable” status someone applies to killing (including suicide) is going to have to be applied much more broadly to some other very common habits.  Not to marginalize or belittle the flagrance of those sins, but drawing that larger circle makes the heterodoxy that much more obviously suspect.  

Romans 1:28-32 says this:

“As they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”

As I’ve said, I’m not debating this in order to paint suicide in a better light.  Suicide is wrong, but it can only be an evidence of a spiritual problem, it can’t be the problem itself.  Unrepentant unbelief is the only thing that can condemn a soul.  Every sin; every variety imaginable, regardless of the level of intensity, makes us worthy of hell, HOWEVER only persistent and final rejection of Christ is unpardonable.  This is why the life that is in Christ is called “eternal” life; never temporary life or (as my Dad would say) sporadic life.

There are a few accounts of suicides in the Bible.  Ahithophel (Second Samuel 17:23) hanged himself because he had lost his influence.  Saul (First Chronicles 10:3-5) fell on his own sword to escape the shame and torture that was sure to befall him after a battle injury.  It seems that Judas (Matthew 27:4-5) killed himself out of the sheer weight of guilt.  Regardless of the excuses they had, each one of these men were definitely in direct opposition with their Maker and ended up taking their life because they practiced some form of apostasy.  Even Jonah and Samson might be included in this discussion.  Jonah must have been attempting suicide when he told the sailors to throw him into the sea (whether cowardly or humbly).  He failed…  A blind and humiliated Samson, perhaps somewhat more honorably, killed himself along with many of God’s enemies when he pulled the temple over on himself (thereby dying a pitiful hero’s death, but taking his own life nonetheless).  Both of these men were in their predicaments due to disobedience to God.  Still, none of these men entered Paradise or Hades as a result of their participation in some form of attempted or fulfilled self-destruction.  There behavior was a result of their attitude toward God.  Judas, most obviously, would have been better off dying in his mother’s womb (according to Christ), not because he hung himself, but because He rejected the Redeemer.

Have you accepted the Redeemer?  Then you have a reason to live!  Live your life until the last moment that He gives you for His glory.

Have you refused the Redeemer?  Then your life is not worth living!  Unless you change direction and trust the Savior, you are damned… regardless of whether you die naturally or purposefully.

Suicide is not an unpardonable sin.

Dying without Jesus is an unpardonable sin.

To preach the gospel and yet to also state that suicide can determinately send people to hell would be a theological contradiction.

Conclusion: It is my conviction that any believer is capable of committing any sin that any unbeliever is capable of committing – including suicide.  The difference is this: the believer will be handled under the umbrella of grace while the unbeliever remains under the rigid and immovable hammer of the law.  Admittedly, my faith should (and will) affect my choices.  Any man who is in Christ is a new creature… out with the old ways and in with the new.  Hallelujah!  Yet, that sanctification of the mind and body is not completed in this life, hence the potential to backslide, to behave carnally, to rebel, to fall, to fail... and yes, even to commit suicide.  It’s not normal.  It’s not natural.  It’s not a sensible action in the life of a saint.  Clearly, it’s not a product of the Spirit.  Yet, because the flesh is still present, suicide can and does happen.  When it happens, it makes us wonder about the condition of the soul of the individual who made the foolish decision to end his or her own life.  Yet we should never forget that the suicide did not determine the individual’s destiny.  It ought not to ever happen.  It does.  It shouldn’t.  It has.  It will. 

I’ve a personal hero in the faith and ministry who took his own life.  I look forward to seeing him whole and forgiven in heaven.